Joe Stevenson is in a must-win fight against Nate Diaz
Published by Zach Arnold on June 20th, 2009 in Current Events

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Joe “Daddy” Stevenson has faced some of the best competition in UFC. With wins over Luke Cummo, Yves Edwards, Dokonjonosuke Mishima, Melvin Guillard, Kurt Pellegrino, and Gleison Tibeau, Stevenson’s resume looks pretty good. However, he has lost three of his four fights — all against elite level competition (BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, and Diego Sanchez). In a “what have you done for me lately?” kind of business, Stevenson knows the pressure is on him to adapt and change up his game to get back on the winning road. Does he have the mental toughness to become a top player in the Lightweight division given the physical punishment he has taken in some of his fights?

“After a war, your body just never comes back the same,” Joe explained in an interview with Steve Cofield of Yahoo Sports. “In our sport because I think of all the different variables and ways to win and not receiving x amount of blows to the head and things such as that I think that not so much true and it’s more, are you mentally strong enough to continue and persevere through it.”

“I don’t think you can count anyone out after someone like Randy Couture has shown us all that it’s the heart.”

Penn and Florian won relatively easily. The decision loss to Sanchez was unfortunate. It wouldn’t have mattered if Stevenson lost to all three men in close fashion or got blown out in each fight — his fight on Saturday night against Nate Diaz may the equivalent of a one-sided Loser Leaves Town match.

“I feel that every fight is make or break, you have to go 110% balls to the wall, no matter what. So I’m going to perform the same way with or without the pressure.”

The pressure is on Stevenson. He may not be saying it directly in interviews, but Joe understood that some dramatic changes needed to be made in his training routine in order to compete with the upper echelon fighters in UFC’s 155 pound Lightweight division. Joe Daddy recently made the switch to start training with Greg Jackson’s camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s a fight camp loaded with top UFC champion-level fighters and top-notch MMA trainers. Simply put, Stevenson made a no-brainer of a choice by switching his training from his former partners in California to his new teammates in New Mexico.

“I’m with Greg Jackson now. I’ve been there for two months training my butt off trying to reinvent myself and make myself a whole new, different Joe Stevenson.”

“The whole team over there at Jackson’s is awesome. Everyone’s very supportive, they’ve helped me push me harder than I’ve ever pushed, I’ve thrown up more at this camp than any other camp prior so… and I think the whole game plan and strategy that we have formatted for this is great. I think that there’s no way that Nate beats me on Saturday.”

Every fighter after a loss or two says that they are going to reinvent themselves. The question is whether or not the reinvention actually takes places and if it means anything against a high-quality opponent like Nate Diaz.

Nate Diaz is part of the red hot Cesar Gracie camp that features Nick Diaz and Jake Shields. Simply put, an awesome fight team that is causing havoc in the North American fight scene in the Welterweight and Middleweight decisions. It’s hard not to like the fighters from the camp, either — they talk smack, they’re entertaining, and they back up everything they say. They are a blast to watch and Nick’s brother is no exception. The Diaz Brothers are not afraid to box and attack you with an insane amount of punches. They only know one method of winning these days and that’s by inflicting pain on their opponents. It’s beautiful to watch.

“Him and Nick are very similar,” exclaimed Stevenson. “I think they’re both great on the ground, great hands, you can’t take anything away from these guys.”

Nate is coming off of a decision loss to ultra-tough Caveman Clay Guida, who is no slouch of a fighter.

“I learned a few things from my last fight (against Guida), you know. Stuff I already should have knew, but just little stuff that probably people can’t understand unless you fight. But, just from losing that fight, yeah man it pissed me off and it makes me want to go out there and you know keep going towards the top of the division.”

Diaz goes into the fight with a height and reach advantage. As Miguel Torres recently said on ESPN’s MMA Live show, Stevenson looks uncomfortable in the stand-up game and this is something that Nate can take advantage of.

“Everybody comes and tells me about my reach advantage and of I’m going to be taller tham him, but I’m taller than everybody so I’m sure he’s got plans for that. So it doesn’t matter height advantage or not I’m just going to go out there and just try to box him up.”

“I’ve trained with people who’ve trained with him and I’ve trained with people who’ve beat him. There’s nothing that I’m worried about except for that I just got to work harder than him and make sure I’m in better shape than him. I’m just going to go out there and I’m going to put it on the man, I’m going to go hard, hit him in his face and keep on and he better keep up. You go in there with intentions to take him out the game and I’m going to come out on top.”

With all of the talk about Joe Daddy reinventing himself, what is it exactly that he has been up to that has dramatically changed his fight style?

“I’m with Greg Jackson now. I’ve been there for two months training my butt off trying to reinvent myself and make myself a whole new, different Joe Stevenson. There’s a great coaching staff with coach Winklejohn and Greg and the stable of fighters is just amazing. I mean, the first day I got there, I sparred with Georges St. Pierre, Nathan Marquardt, played with Rashad a little bit, there’s Cowboy Cerrone, there’s Leonard Garcia, Dave Louiseau, he was there, and several others that I’m missing right now, my buddy Aaron Riley came up, there’s a lot of raw talent there and they mold it.”

Is Stevenson suffering from Sean Sherk syndrome of using a fight style that doesn’t apply to the skill set that he possesses?

“So many times we forget, hey, this is what got me here, this is what I’m good at, and this is what I need to do and that’s what I’m doing right now. So, it’s more like reinventing myself now with all the tools rather than “Oh we’re going back to what got me there”, no no no, I can still punch and kick and elbow and knee on my feet just as well.”

“I got really content with standing on my feet rather than doing what got me here, taking people down and pounding them out into a submission. And that’s what Greg has helped me reinvent myself. It’s really exciting to be unpredictable in a fight.”

Stevenson is out to prove the critics wrong, but he has a long road to climb to make it happen.

“Yeah, those are the same people that you know with setbacks let that ruin their whole life. You know, Honestly, 10% of your life is going to be messed up. It’s out of your control. It’s what you do with that other 90% is what your going to become. If you dwell on those little losses and those little hardships and things, then you’re just going to be groggy and never going to succeed. But if you keep on going forward, no matter what, you’re going to get ahead.”

Is the proof in the pudding?

“With Greg, honestly, I feel that there’s no reason to ever lose a decision. I can see someone getting knocked out or submitted, that happens, that’s a quick stoppage, doctor stoppage, but when lose a decision it’s something that you could have done with yourself and a lot of my training I felt was on myself with my setbacks of not being more aggressive with the takedown or forcing to my strong point which is the ground. Even with Diego where that’s his strong point, I think would faired a lot better chance. So, Greg has helped me reinvent myself and bring myself (to a new level), he said he was very happy with our game plan. He’s very happy with the significant changes that I’ve made in my style and we’re going to see it all come together here Saturday.”

Diaz is the favorite going into the fight according to the fans, Las Vegas, and a lot of opinions amongst MMA insiders. However, don’t count Nate in the camp of those who believe he has the fight already locked up and won.

“Joe’s lost like the last three out of his four fights. I’m sure he’s hungry and I’m sure he wants to win. So I know that’s he’s training hard and working out hard because he wants to beat me but he’s picking the wrong person to try to beat, you know. Now, it’s me or him, and I’m going for me.”

Joe Daddy thinks he knows what he can exploit against young Nate Diaz.

“Nate’s a young fighter, he’s got a lot of things that he has to work out with himself to where he knows, “Oh, this is what I’m going to do in this situation, this is what I’m going to do in this situation, where it becomes reactionary instead of emotional and hopefully I exploit that this Saturday.”

Stevenson desperately needs a win against Diaz. If he doesn’t win, the speculation will begin as to whether or not he is on the UFC cutting block. A win over Joe Daddy would definitely help Nate’s chances of growing in the UFC and a loss could definitely hurt his growth. However, given the success of his brother Nick, it’s unlikely that UFC is willing to give up so quickly on this Diaz family member. It will be an excellent tactical fight to watch and I expect it to go the distance.